The Fine Family plans to attend our second tournament this week. We are paying close attention to the COVID-19 information from local public health officials as well as our parent organization for the team, FIRST Robotics Competition.

The California Department of Public Health (CDPH) is not recommending cancelling of events in counties without evidence of community transmission. San Diego County does not yet have any such evidence of transmission.

“CDPH does not recommend cancelation of community events at this time if no COVID-19 cases exist within the community.”

CDPH does recommend that “Californians who are at higher risk from COVID-19 to take actions to reduce their risk. This includes older adults, individuals with compromised immune systems, and individuals who have serious chronic medical conditions.”

As with any rapidly changing situation, we will notify team parents if our plans change, or if the tournament organizers provide more information or cancel the event.

*** NOTE THE TIME AND LOCATION CHANGE — 8 AM AT THE FINE RESIDENCE ***

We have dropped the ViaSat KickOff in favor of a team pancake breakfast at The Fine Residence. We will watch the 2019 KickOff video and use our two VR headsets to take a virtual look at the playing field for Destination: Deep Space!

Parents are welcome to attend as well.

Come have some food and fun before we head to San Dieguito Academy to break down the 2019 competition!

*** ALL TEAM MEMBERS MUST BE REGISTERED WITH FIRST WITH SIGNED CONSENT FORMS FOR THE 2019 SEASON ***

* In order to stay on schedule we will not be having a set lunch break. Please look at your match schedule and plan your team’s lunch accordingly.

We will be playing a slightly modified version of FIRST Power Up.Game Modifications:

G25. PLATES are moved by POWER CUBES, not ROBOTS. Except via the weight of placed POWER CUBES, ROBOTS may not directly or transitively cause or prevent the movement of PLATES to their ALLIANCE’s advantage. Movement, or prevention of movement, of PLATES because of momentary ROBOT action resulting in minimal PLATE displacement is not a violation of this rule. A ROBOT forced to affect the position of a PLATE because of contact by an opponent ROBOT either directly or transitively through a POWER CUBE or other ROBOT (e.g. a ROBOT wedged underneath the SCALE by the opposing ALLIANCE either intentionally or accidentally) is not a violation of this rule.

A04. Stay out of your opponent’s side of the FIELD. During AUTO, no part of a ROBOT’S BUMPERS may pass from the NULL TERRITORY to the opponent’s side of the FIELD. Violation: FOUL. If contact is made with an opponent ROBOT in their side of the FIELD (either direct contact or transitive contact through a POWER CUBE), TECH FOUL and YELLOW CARD. If the contact prevents the opponent ALLIANCE from achieving the AUTO QUEST, the associated Ranking Point will be granted automatically.Alliance Selection
Battle at the Border will use three-team playoff alliances. All rules governing their selection and operation will be identical to those for Championship playoff alliances in section 10.11.1 in the official manual.

Concession Stand

Open 10:00am – 5:00pm selling Burgers, Pretzels snacks and drinks

Battle at the Border Charity – American Cancer Society

Again for the 2018 Battle at the Border we are bringing back the “Mentor Challenge”! The mentor challenge will be a tournament to see which mentors can play Power Up the best. All proceeds from the Mentor Challenge will go toward the American Cancer Society.

Rules To Participate:
Teams of 2 Post-High School Mentors
$25.00 entry fee pay morning of or send in ahead of time to guarantee your spot via PayPal- donations@team1538.comSpace for up to 32 teams of mentors. First come, first serve. Mentors do not need to come from the same team. If there is space the day of the event, walk up teams will be accepted.

Alliance Selection
At the end of the robot qualification rounds, there will be an alliance selection for the Mentor Challenge. The #1 ranked mentor team will have first pick, we will go down the team ranking
Alliances will consist of 2 mentor teams (the captain and their pick)
FRC Alliance selection rules apply for accepting/declining, etc.
At the end of alliance selections there will be 16 alliances formed.

Tournament
The elimination tournament will be a single elimination tournament with 4 rounds: Round of 16, Quarterfinals, Semifinals and Finals.
Matches will be held in between robot elimination matches on the competition field. Having fun is highly encouraged, but please do not damage the field.

Match Play
Each match will be 1 minute long.
Each team will place 1 mentor behind the driver station to feed cubes to the mentors on the field
The mentors on the field will race to stack cubes on the switch or alliance scale at the opposite side of their drivers station.
Mentors on the field can only carry/control 1 game cube at a time.
Cubes must be entered through the Chute.
Game pieces cannot be dragged across the field (please respect the tape lines).
Only humans are allowed to participate. Mechanisms and/or robots to assist with stacking and transport are not allowed.
Scoring will be the same as regular robot matches

Looking forward to seeing everyone on October 20th! For any questions about the event, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us at

This week is our regional robotics competition at the Del Mar Arena at the Fairgrounds.

The FIRST Robotics Competition San Diego Regional tournament is host to 60+ teams from around the United States and the world. We have a lot of students on the team this year, but unfortunately, we haven’t had any adults volunteer to supervise this season. This leaves Mike and Janelle Fine to supervise the entire team, so we are allowing 8 students per mentor, meaning 16 students will be allowed on this field trip.

If you have been coming to our team lunch meetings, but haven’t had time to help during the 5-week build season, we invite you to visit the tournament on Friday afternoon or Saturday, but parents, those students will not be supervised and will be there as part of the general public. Come and visit our pit area and watch some of the tournament!

Anyone going into the “pit area” must wear closed toed shoes, safety glasses and have long hair secured at all times.

Here is our planned schedule.

Wednesday

Time: After school (Most students picked up at LCC by 5:15 pm, load-in team will return around 8:30 pm)

Meet in LCC Room 905 and help load our large rental truck with all equipment, robot, and spare parts.

We are limited to 5 team members for the actual load-in at Del Mar this year. This means that most students will need to be picked up at LCC by 5:15 pm.

Those helping load in will return around 8:30 pm, all others should be picked up at LCC by 5:15 pm.

Saturday morning we will had the remainder of the qualifying rounds. After lunch, quarterfinals begin. We may or may not make it to the quarterfinals, depending on our performance.

If you want to visit, Friday afternoon or Saturday morning will be the best chances. As mentioned above, you must have proper attire to visit the team’s pit area.

Our mentor team from SDA, Team Paradox, has some words of wisdom which I will paraphrase for LCC Robotics:

“Here are some reminders about the competition:

Please wear closed-toed shoes- visitors too! The robot pit area, which everyone should visit if you can, requires closed-toed shoes at all times.

You can buy food and drinks at the venue.

Bring a jacket as it is an open venue and may be cold.

YOU are representing La Costa Canyon every second you are in your team spirit wear. This means NO RUNNING, no swearing, and absolutely no horseplay in the pit area or outside. Just remember that you are representing your team regardless of if you are buying a hot dog, if you are in our pit, or if you are in the stands.”

Women in STEM Event

This year out team is mostly comprised of young women. All of you are invited to the “Women in STEM” event on Friday from 1:30 to 2:30 PM. This event is put on by our major sponsor, Nordson, and we encourage all LCC women to attend along with Mrs. Fine.

Important Venue Information

Our event will be at the Del Mar Arena on the Del Mar Fairgrounds. The general entrance will be the Main Gate located on Jimmy Durante Blvd. just off Interstate 5 and Via De La Valle.

Parking will be free for everyone on Wednesday and Thursday in the main parking lot. On Friday and Saturday there will be a $14 parking fee charged, per vehicle per entry by the venue.

Venue Food Policy:

There is no parking lot “tailgating” and no commercial food is allowed at the venue (this includes any prepared food that purchased and brought in or delivered). Teams may bag lunches but it must be consumed in a designated team eating area and nowhere else in the arena or on the fairgrounds. Areas will be denoted by signage at the site. Individuals may bring personal snacks and lunch and teams will be allowed to load water into the pits during load in. We have been asked to communicate this to all team members and parents: “If we violated this rule we could jeopardize being able to hold the San Diego Regional at the Del Mar Fairgrounds “

Venue operated concessions will be available Thursday, Friday, and Saturday.

Each year, the LCC MavBots have helped SDA’s robotics team (Team Paradox) by volunteering at a robotics tournament for students in grades 4-8. This year’s tournament runs two days, Sat. Nov 4 and Sun. Nov 5.

We have sent a link through Remind to their Google sign up sheet. If you volunteer for a position, please be sure you can make it. We also need general help with setup on Saturday morning and teardown on Sunday afternoon/evening.

It’s a lot of fun AND a great way to get some community service hours!